64
1. Patients receiving parenteral opioids should be monitored continuously
regardless of location in the hospital.
2. Minimal set of continuous data should include pulse, oxygen saturation,
respirations and expiratory carbon dioxide.
3. Monitoring should be a team effort involving floor nursing, respiratory
therapy and physicians, and all should be trained in the workflows and
technologies associated with continuous ventilation monitoring.
4. Notifications for clinical alarms related to hypoventilation concurrent with
hypoxia should be directed to nursing AND respiratory therapy.
5. Clinical or biomedical engineering should be part of the notification chain
for machine-specific alarms and errors that indicate possibility of false
readings.
6. When continuous surveillance is used, smart alarms using multiple
parameters that identify hypoventilation together with declining
oxygenation provide the best indicator of impending respiratory distress.
“The 6 Rights of OIRD Surveillance”